Law students at Chicago's John Marshall Law School are getting a new dose of spam--on their course schedule. The spam serving comes courtesy of John Marshall associate professor David Sorkin, who's offering what he and his peers say may be . . .
Law students at Chicago's John Marshall Law School are getting a new dose of spam--on their course schedule. The spam serving comes courtesy of John Marshall associate professor David Sorkin, who's offering what he and his peers say may be the first law school course devoted to the subject of unsolicited commercial e-mail.

"This seminar will investigate legal and policy issues raised by e-mail marketing and spam," Sorkin wrote in describing the summer seminar, titled "Current Topics in Information Technology Law: Regulation of Spam and E-mail Marketing." "Topics to be addressed include litigation and legislation involving spam and e-mail marketing; the application of tort law and other traditional doctrines to spam; concerns related to constitutionality, jurisdiction, extraterritoriality, privacy, content and public policy; regulatory perspectives; issues faced by Internet service providers and legitimate e-mail marketers; legal aspects of blacklisting and other antispam measures; and other relevant issues."

Sorkin, who in 1995 taught one of the first courses devoted to Internet law and who maintains a Web repository of passed and pending spam laws, has long touted the applicability of traditional law to the Internet. He has warned against legislation drafted specifically for online contexts, saying that new spam bills, in particular, have the potential to worsen the problem they're designed to alleviate.